Letting go
by BookwormSquidoo
Summary: Annabeth and Thalia are best friends. Sure, they had their differences. Like, Annabeth loves Architecture while Thalia is into Punk rock but none of it got in the way of their friendship, until a young black haired,green eyed man came into their lives. When it comes to choosing between love and friendship, how long are you willing to sacrifice your own happiness for your friend?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I would like to dedicate this to my best friends: Shiely, Dana, Georgina, and Cenon. I would never exchange you guys for anything... Except maybe pizza. **

**It might be time for us to separate, but my heart will stay by your side. Always. Never forget me.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. **

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Thalia and I had been best friends forever.

Forever started when I was 7 years old and she was 9. It didn't really start off very well. I was coloring my drawing of a building that I designed by myself. I carefully draw all the details that went in my head and it turned out perfectly, just like I had imagined. Some of my friends had actually tried to stop me and asked me to just eat lunch like every normal being does when at that time but I was so into my design that I tuned them out. The only thing that was important to me was the building and the colors I've been using.

That was when she snatched my drawing.

"Hey!" I protested as she stared at it. She was different in a lot of ways. At the age of seven, I've never seen any girl who had a short and choppy hair like hers. She wore a black shirt with a picture of a zombie Barbie on it. I could imagine the girls sitting with me move away in terror in seeing their favorite cartoon character as an extra on _the Walking dead. _Her blue eyes scan the details of my drawing, muttering a small hmm as she looked.

"It looks like the Empire State building." She commented

I stood up from my chair and tried to grab my drawing away from her, "Does not!"

She moved the drawing up, away from my grasp. She was a few inches taller than me so I couldn't reach it even when I started jumping. She continued staring at my drawing as she moved away from me so I couldn't reach it.

"It's definitely the Empire State building."

"Give me back my drawing."

She glanced at me and handed me my drawing back, "I like you kid. Most of them are afraid of me. You weren't afraid to stand up to me."

"I'm not afraid of you." I said

She ruffled my hair, "Of course you're not." She said "I'm Thalia, by the way and I better get going before one of those stupid Hall monitors start to think that I'm bullying you."

And just like that, she disappeared into the crowd of children who were eating lunch.

I sat back down and started to grab the crayon I was using before Thalia snatched it when one of my friends, Grover started munching on his apple loudly. It was one of his habits when he's really nervous.

"What is it Grover?" I asked

"Annabeth, that girl was Thalia Grace. The most weird and dangerous third grader in this school." He said

"She doesn't look that dangerous." I said as I looked back on my shoulder, not knowing what I was expecting to see other than a cafeteria full of children.

Grover made a bleating noise before taking a bite out of his apple, "They said that last year, she got angry with a teacher, Mrs. Figgs, giving her a detention so she electrocuted her with jumper cables."

"You're ridiculous." I told him. I looked at Silena, one of my friends," Tell him he's being ridiculous"

Silena gave me an uncomfortable look, "Sorry Annie but I have to agree with Grover on this one. Last month, Thalia was being bullied by a fifth grader who wants her pocket money and she got so angry that she charged him and managed to push him five feet away."

I stared at them incredulously, "You two are being silly. Okay first of all, you need a battery, preferably a car battery to use a jumper cable properly. And second, have you seen her? How do you think a scrawny kid like her could manage to push a fifth grader who is much bigger and stronger than her?"

The two of them shrugged, "Honestly Annabeth, do you have to question everything?" Silena asked

"Only the ones that doesn't make any sense. Now can I just finish my drawing?"

They went back to what they were doing and I turned to my drawing and noticed something I didn't noticed before Thalia saw it. It did look like the Empire State Building.

* * *

It was a week after the first time I encountered Thalia Grace. I was under the huge tree in a school playground. Silena asked Grover and I to go to the playground to stare at her long time crush, Charles Beckendorf. Grover was crippled so he couldn't play even if he wanted to, Silena didn't like playing because she didn't want to be sweaty once Beckendorf sees her and I wasn't interested in running around like other children and would prefer to just read a book so the three of us settled into sitting under a tree where we could do everything we want at the same time. Silena could stare at Beckendorf the whole time he runs around playing tag, Grover could be with the love of his life, nature and I could read books in peace.

We were having the time of our lives when I heard someone yell angrily by the swing set and noticed Thalia being surrounded by a bunch of kids who looked like her age. They were laughing at her as they yell insults at her that I couldn't comprehend at a young age. Their laughter reminded me of those evil characters I've seen in my morning cartoons. The thing that made me admire her was that she wasn't cowering in fear or standing up to fight. She was doing something that no one in our age could do. Ignore them and walk away.

Sure that option seemed too cowardly but showing that you're afraid will make them bully you more. Fighting back would only result to you getting into trouble. It was pretending that they didn't exist and showing that it didn't trouble you at all would show them that they don't have an effect on you and maybe they'll get tired and leave you alone.

A boy with an eye patch pushed Thalia which she didn't expect and she fell on the ground. The children around them laugh wickedly.

Or maybe it will only push them to do desperate things to get a reaction.

I ran towards them, dropping my book along the way. "Leave her alone! Leave her alone!" I yelled at them and pushed the eye patch boy, Ethan Nakamura, away and stood in front of Thalia, spreading out my arms to protect her from Ethan.

I never liked Ethan. I always thought of him as someone too boastful and stupid. Once, he stood on top of a cafeteria table to announce proudly that someday he'll be a one eyed pirate like he always dreamed to be. So every day, he wears the eye patch just to remind everyone of that promise. I tried telling him that pirates like that only existed a long time ago and they were only guys on speedboats who steal from other boats now like I've read in books. He told me to go away then called me an egghead.

He smirked and stood in front of me. He was also two years older so he would be taller than me, "Well, well, well... If it isn't egghead. Come here to protect your little friend?" He turned to Thalia who had already stood up behind me. I couldn't see her face but I know that she must be stunned with how a stranger like me stood up for her like that, "I didn't know you had a friend Grease, did your daddy buy her so you wouldn't be lonely? Oh that's right… You have no dad!"

Other kids laughed again. Thalia growled behind me and I knew that she would in trouble if she did something like tackle the boy so I started thinking of what I could do until I thought of something.

"That's rich coming from you Ethan. You don't even have a mom." I blurted out. I didn't even know if he really didn't have one so the insult was a long shot but judging from his cringe, I was lucky and right.

"How did you-"He trailed off, the stunned look on his face was replaced with anger, "You'll pay for that, Chase!"

He started coming towards me and I immediately remembered something my dad told me this summer.

_"Remember Annabeth, what I'm about to teach you is something to be used when there's only an emergency."_

_I nodded enthusiastically. My dad laughed and said, "This only works on boys so you could only use it on them. So whenever there's a boy about to hurt you, remember to kick his soft spot."_

_"What's a soft spot?" I asked_

_"The spot below the belt and between your legs." He said "Hit that spot and he won't be able to hurt you but like I told you-"_

_"Only on emergencies" We said together_

I could see it all happen in slow motion, like in a movie when the bad guy and the good guy fight. There's this epic slow motion you'll experience before it completely happen. Before he could even come too close, I raised my leg and my foot hit the exact spot my father told me. He crumbled in pain and touched the spot before dropping on the ground. Everything fell silent; they stared at him then at me before cheering and left.

The only ones left was Ethan, Thalia, and me. Silena and Grover walked towards me with a worried expression on their faces, "Oh my God! Annabeth, that was so cool and terrifying. How did you do that?" Silena asked

At the same time, Grover said "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said before turning to Thalia, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." She replied "You didn't have to do that; your perfect record would get tarnished."

I winced but just shrugged to show her that I don't care, "I don't care."

"Well thanks. No one had stood up for me like that before."

"No problem. Let's just bring Ethan to the nurse's office before he starts bawling." I said

We carried Ethan who was in great pain to the nurse's office (All of us except for Grover who can't). He was surprisingly light for a big kid like him. Silena was someone who didn't like silence, she's someone who can chatter for four hours straight and not even break a sweat so I wasn't surprised when she asked Thalia along the way, "Is it true that electrocuted Mrs. Figgs with jumper cables?"

Thalia laughed, "I resent that fact. Mrs. Figgs electrocuted herself by plugging her radio with wet hands. I don't know who started that jumper cables business but you know what, it makes me sound like a bad ass."

It was the start of a new friendship. We didn't talk about being friends at all, it just sort of happened.

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**A/N: Hi! Did you like it? I hope you do. I apologize for my spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes. Please Fave and Follow this story and leave a review here. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Shout out to Shiely Anne who not only stole a bit of my dedication on my first chapter for them for her Valedictorian Speech but also for planning to treat me, Georgina, and Cenon to the mall today and also to Dana who can't join us today. Don't worry, it won't be the last time we'll hang out. Right now, enjoy your quality time with your family. **

**GoddessOfArchitecture: **Wow... Thanks. I like that part too. It was funny for me since I didn't like Ethan (At the fourth book.)

******Codegeasslover: **Thank you. It's- uhmm.. Yep! But it's more of Annabeth sacrificing her love for Percy because she saw how he could make her best friend happy and just torture herself as she watched(and maybe help a little bit) them grew closer together. It's a little something that could help the answer to the famous question, "What would you choose? Love or Friendship." But yeaaaahhh.. I think we could consider it a love triangle. Could we? I never understood the concept of it.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians **

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**9 years later…**

"I'm leaving!" I announced to the whole house as I shut the door. I could hear my stepmother's faint voice saying good-bye through the close door. I ran off the porch and met up with Thalia in Aegis.

Aegis was her old pick-up truck that she named after a petrifying shield because her truck could literally paralyze any over-protective parents with its old parts that could fall apart the moment it exceed to three passengers. Thalia loved it though. It was the first car that she bought on her own.

Thalia and I had become great friends after the incident at the playground. Silena, Grover, and I just took her in our little group of friends. As we grow older, the four of us got really close but then Silena and Grover got too busy with their clubs and school works that they barely had enough time to hang out with us so it was just usually just me and Thalia. We spent so much time together that we even consider ourselves sisters.

"Took you long enough." She said.

She was wearing her "Death to Barbie" t-shirt, black leather jacket, jeans, and boots. The perfect outfit to wear if you want someone like Drew Tanaka to stay away from you which is exactly her goal in her daily life.

"Sorry." I said as I got in the vehicle. Polka music was blaring in the radio, something that Thalia never appreciated. "I had to make sure I haven't forgotten anything."

She rolled her eyes, "Of course. Everything has to be perfect."

"Everything has to be ready," I corrected "Will you just drive?"

"Touchy…" Thalia muttered as she started the engine.

After a few minutes of driving and Thalia cursing her radio, we finally arrived in Goode High where everything is "good".

Goode High was originally founded in New York but because of its "good qualities" and special awards, it started to form branches all over America including in the little town of New Groove, San Francisco. In contrast to the reviews Goode High was receiving, I do not think that this Goode is exceptionally good. Most of the teachers are lazy and biased, a lot of students are just kiss ups and rich kids who bribe their way to the top, and the principal is a bitter middle-aged man who hates children.

If you're just a middle class student like me, surviving that school for even a year would be a wonderful miracle. I'm a bit jealous with Thalia since it's her last year in Goode; meanwhile I'm stuck in that school for another two years. Where's the justice in that?

The school itself isn't very large but the school grounds is. We went to the office and found a nervous looking Grover coming out of it.

"Grover, you look like you were just chosen to compete in the Hunger Games." Thalia said

"Can you blame me?!" Grover exclaimed "Mr. D is as scary as hell."

"Mr. D's early today?" I asked. Normally, Mr. D, the principal arrives before lunch so he could meet up with the trouble makers of the day and be done with it so he could finish playing Pac-man at home. Maybe a new school year is a new start.

Grover nodded his expression calming down, "Apparently, we have a new teacher and student that he has to welcome. He assigned me to be the student's welcoming committee then yelled about new children messing up his morning."

Or maybe he's still the same. I knew it, that bitter old man would never change.

"Well… That's it. Screw our schedule. I'm not going in there" Thalia said, glaring at the office door.

"Thalia…." I started

"No way, Annie. There is no way I'm going in there. He hates everyone and we both know the feeling's mutual."

I started panicking along with Grover that I even forgotten to scold her for calling me Annie. I put a finger over my lips, pleading her to keep quiet. "Do you want to get in trouble? Again! On the first freaking day of school."

Grover started nibbling on the collar on his shirt, "You really don't want him to hear you talking like that. He's really pissed because he missed his morning routine."

Thalia waved her hand off, "He'll be too busy ranting to his secretary to even bother."

As Thalia's best friend since childhood, I was used to her acting like this and I know no amount of pleading will get her to stay out of trouble. I rubbed my temple and sighed, "Well… If you don't want to go in then I will."

Thalia grinned, "Good luck then."

"Some best friend you are." I muttered as my hand went towards the door. Thalia laughed.

"Well… I have to go." Grover said before I could open the door. "Good luck."

"You too, Grover."

He's going to need it. Since the town is so small and everyone practically lived here their whole lives, having a new kid in our school is a really rare event in our school so not only does Grover had to worry about showing the new kid around but also answering the questions of hundreds of our schoolmates like if the new kid's a boy or a girl and if it is, is it cute? Just these kinds of questions.

I was going to need luck too. I took a deep breath before twisting the door knob then entered the room, not expecting Thalia to follow me inside where we found Mr. D yelling at his secretary, a bored looking woman who was chewing bubblegum as she typed away on her computer.

"…Don't want to tour that new teacher Pete Blowfish-"

"Paul Blowfis, sir." The secretary corrected, sounding as bored as she looked

"Yes, whatever and-"Mr. D stopped talking and practically glared at us, "Annie bell Connors and Tammy Grey! Why are you not in your class?! Finally decided that you're too good for school too?"

Mr. D had a very chubby face, a red nose, and curly hair so black, it looks purple. A running rumor said that he dyed it to be like that because a natural hair color like that is just not usually possible. His blue eyes are watery and bloodshot, probably from drinking too much and regretting of getting a job as a principal. He's wearing his favorite leopard-spot Hawaiian shirt and purple running shoes but all of us doubt that he can even run.

He also never says our names right just to show that he cares little about us.

"Uh...Uhm..." I looked at Thalia for a moment before speaking up, "I- We're here to get our schedule and classes doesn't start until 8 sir."

He looked at his secretary, "Well… give Alison and Teresa their schedules, locker numbers, and what-not."

The secretary handed us our schedules, "Annabeth Chase and Thalia Grace."

Thalia grimaced at the sound of her last name but said thank you with me as he sent us out of his office.

The last sound we heard before we closed the door was Mr. D talking to his secretary, "Tell Chiron to do the tour guide thingy for Blowfish. I have more important matters to attend to, like beating Blinky."

"We did it." Thalia said, "We survived Professor Snape's office."

The two of us laughed, "I thought you said you weren't going to come?" I said

She looked at me with confusion, "Annie, you're like a little sister for me. Why would I let you send yourself to hell without me going with you?"

"It wasn't that bad." I argued

She laughed, "You're right. I just like making jokes about him." She said as she checked her schedule then her watch and made a tsk sound. "I have to go. Apparently, my teacher for homeroom is everyone's favorite ex Pre-Algebra teacher who followed us to high school. Mrs. Dodds."

I scrunched my nose in disgust, "Lucky you." I said sarcastically

"See you later,Annabeth." She said before leaving

I checked my own schedule, having a bit of hard time comprehending the schedule because of my dyslexia.

The only good thing about Goode is that no one teases you about dyslexia because there are lots of kids in this school who has it along with ADHD. We used to joke that only one person had it but then it spread because someone touched that person. It was like in kindergarten, when kids fear a cootie infection but everyone got infected anyway.

My first class was Homeroom with Paul Blowfis, the new teacher that they were talking about at the office earlier. Since I knew that Chiron, our Latin teacher, was still or is going to be showing the new teacher around, I didn't hurry to my first class. Instead, I went to my locker to place my things because my shoulder was feeling numb from my full loaded backpack.

As I walk through the student infested hallway, I stared at the new decorations of the school. A big cliché banner that read, "Goode is good," hanged on the ceiling. The different posters and flyers for the school clubs were sticked on the walls and thrown on the floors. The janitor/ security guard, Argus was already sweeping through the mess the students made.

"On the first freaking day…" I heard him mutter, "Early in the morning… How fast can these children make a mess?"

I felt sorry for him as I passed through the lockers, trying to find mine. I looked at each number carefully so I wouldn't miss my number when I felt a great force slam into me. I wasn't normally clumsy or weak but I was so unprepared that I fell. The only thing I could do before falling was grabbing something for support but unfortunately, I grabbed something which was falling with me. It ended up on top of me.

That's when I noticed how it was moving like it was alive and how it smelled like salt water. I realized that there was a person on top of me. I screamed and pushed the person off. My mind just processed that the person who was on top of me was a boy. He had a shock expression on his face, like he just seen a bear in a tutu dancing a part in _Swan Lake_. He stood up and ran off, crying out, "Sorry!"

"Watch where you're going!" I yelled out throwing the only thing I had, my heavy backpack which didn't get far enough. It didn't matter anyway, he was already long gone. I groaned in frustration and grabbed my things back then started to look for my locker where I took out my anger and shoved everything, including my backpack in. The bell rang almost immediately. I went to my first class with Mr. Blowfis where I tried to forget the black haired, green eyed boy who I've never seen before and how fell on top of me and just took off like that.

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**A/N: So there it is.. A short chapter. I fell ashamed... But I couldn't concentrate. It's so freaking hot and what bothers me is that I'm not the one that caused it. Sorry for the wrong grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes that I've made. Please Fave and Follow this story if you like it and leave a Review to help my self-esteem , to help me realize my mistakes or just to tell me to get off the internet and get a life. Thank you! **


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